In this step, the Load Method to be used is specified. The next steps will vary according to the load method that is chosen. The load methods are divided into several categories; the desired category is selected by clicking the corresponding button. Then the method is chosen from the Load Demand types pane depending on the nature of the loading data source.

The available load methods are as follows:

Point Load Data

• Billing Meter Aggregation—This loading method assigns all meters within a service polygon to the specified loading node for that service polygon.
  
  
• Nearest Node—This loading method assigns customer meter loads to the closest loading junction.
  
  
• Nearest Pipe—This loading method assigns customer meter loads to the closest pipe, then distributes loads using user-defined criteria.
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Area Load Data

• Equal Flow Distribution—This loading method equally divides the total flow contained in a flow boundary polygon and assigns it to the nodes that fall within the flow boundary polygon.
  
  
• Proportional Distribution by Area—This load method proportionally distributes a lump-sum load among a number of loading nodes based upon the ratio of total service area to the area of the node’s corresponding service polygon.
  
  
• Proportional Distribution by Population—This load method proportionally distributes a lump-sum load among a number of loading nodes based upon the ratio of total population contained within the node’s corresponding service polygon.
  
  

Population / Land Use Data

• Projection by Land Use—This method allocates loads based upon the density per land use type of each service polygon.
  
  
• Load Estimation by Population—This method allocates loads based upon user-defined relationships between load per capita and population data.
  
  

Internal Data

Property Connection Load Data—Load Data are to be based on data from Property Connection elements and associated with tap elements or other node elements in model. This method assumes that load data is already available in the Property Connection. Such data would have been imported using ModelBuilder or entered manually.